The Supreme Court on Friday refused to grant interim bail to real estate firm Unitech managing directors Sanjay Chandra and his brother Ajay Chandra and said that it will consider the matter on September 15 in a case of alleged forgery by home buyers of its Gurugram-based Anthea Floors Wildflower Country project.

Five buyers of the Unitech’s Anthea Floors Wildflower Country project including Delhi residents led by Arjun Bedi and others had filed a complaint for registration of FIR against the company in 2015. (PTI)

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to grant interim bail to real estate firm Unitech managing directors Sanjay Chandra and his brother Ajay Chandra and said that it will consider the matter on September 15 in a case of alleged forgery by home buyers of its Gurugram-based Anthea Floors Wildflower Country project. A bench of chief justice Dipak Misra said it will look into the aspect of granting interim bail to the Unitech promoters next week after getting details of the number of projects, flats and home buyers and posted the matter for further hearing. It also appointed advocate Pawan C Aggrawal as amicus and asked him to submit these details, including of those wanting refunds and those seeking flats.

The apex court clarified that the home buyers who were seeking refunds will be given money on pro-rata basis and those wanting flats will be given the same.

Sanjay’s counsel Abhimanyu Bhandari said he had complied with all the conditions and deposited Rs 20 crore till now. He argued that he can refund the money only if he is allowed to work and raise the funds.

According to Chandras, they are in advance stage of reaching at an amicable settlement with more complainants and to ensure the success of settlement cases, they would need to attend their offices and manage affairs of the company to raise and generate liquidity at the earliest. Both brothers have challenged the August 11 order of the Delhi High Court that refused to grant interim bail to them and rather asked them to file status report.

Five buyers of the Unitech’s Anthea Floors Wildflower Country project including Delhi residents led by Arjun Bedi and others had filed a complaint for registration of FIR against the company in 2015.

Later, 90 more complaints were received against the firm for the same project which were clubbed with the FIR. The buyers had alleged that Unitech did not return the money to them when they sought refund of their amount for delay in handing over the possession of their flats in the company’s housing project in Gurugram. They had also accused the builder of duping several people.

Almost after two years, the Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police had arrested the real estate investment company’s both managing directors for failing to complete the housing project on time in Gurugram’s Sector 70. The police had also restrained them from getting bail in the matter, according to the petition. They were booked under section 406, 409 (breach of trust), 420 (cheating) and 120 (b) (concealing criminal offence) of the Indian Penal Code.

Despite the police in its status report stating that the matter was of a civil nature, the trial court had directed police to register an FIR against the company in compliance of its July 27, 2015 report.